Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT)

Promoting Rational Inquiry in the Philadelphia Area since 1994

February Meeting Canceled

Because of the expected winter storm on Saturday, February 21, the PhACT meeting scheduled for that afternoon is
canceled. We will reschedule the speaker (Alan Mann) for a future meeting.

Who asks questions like these?

Does astrology work?

What is therapeutic touch?

Are UFOs alien spacecraft?

Can we remember past lives?

Can psychics foretell the future?

What do near death experiences mean?

Can hypnotism recover lost memories?

What frequency are psychic vibrations?

We do.

We ask: What is the evidence? What can one reasonably deduce from that evidence? Do we need to
suppose paranormal powers were involved? Could there be a simpler
explanation? Could this have happened by chance? Can we do an experiment to
test this? Whose story can we trust? Is this a hoax? What are the facts?

We are the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT). We love tough
questions, but we maintain that there is only one way to find trustworthy
answers: to use reason and to experiment. We reject wishful thinking,
anecdotes, revelation, unsupported authority, and "everybody knows."
We ask only, "What are the facts and what can we deduce from them?"

Of course, we don't know all the answers; nobody does, whatever they may
claim. There are many questions which cannot be answered now and some which
may never be answered.

Our difference?

Critical thinkers don't invent answers
when there are none. We are not afraid to admit we don't know. We would
rather suspend judgment than mislead ourselves and others.

PhACT encourages
people to think critically about their beliefs and about the validity of the
information presented to them. PhACT does not presume to tell
people what to think but it does give guidance in how to think. Like Josh
Billings, we believe that what hurts you more is not what you don't know but
what you know that isn't so. We do not arbitrarily reject anything
unexamined. Instead, we encourage the responsible scientific investigation of
paranormal and fringe-science claims. Our aim is to promote scientific
inquiry, media responsibility, critical thinking, and science education.

Join us.

Membership in PhACT is open to anyone who supports our aims.
The annual membership of $25 (or $15 with email Phactum delivery) includes six issues of our newsletter, "Phactum".
For more information, please visit our "Join PhACT" page.
Or you can contact PhACT.